


gravitational constants

by jenuyu



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 23:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14460576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenuyu/pseuds/jenuyu
Summary: “Are you a parasite or something?” Donghyuck asks, incredulous, one day when they’re walking home after school. Jaemin’s pulled Jeno to him by the backpack straps, and he has a loose arm around Jeno’s shoulders as they walk back to the dorms in step.“Yeah, I am, but only for Jeno. How’d you know, Donghyuckie?” Jaemin says, the corners of his lips curling upwards, and Donghyuck snorts.“I can’t believe this. Thenerve,” Donghyuck mutters under his breath.





	gravitational constants

**Author's Note:**

> [(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)](https://twitter.com/NCTsmtown/status/989464614365675520)

Everyone knows that the earth doesn’t revolve around one singular person. Obviously, as Mark remembers from second grade science, the earth revolves around the sun. It’s been proven by countless experiments and supported by numerous models, and anyone saying otherwise is probably living in a state of suspension of disbelief.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite all of the planetary missions and photographs beamed back from satellites, Mark doesn’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that Jeno and Jaemin’s worlds revolve around one another.

 

 

He first notices it when Jaemin joins SM. Mark is fourteen and Jeno is thirteen and Jaemin is almost thirteen, and in retrospect, he should’ve known that it would last.

On Jaemin’s first day, Jeno tells Jaemin that “I’ve been here longer than you but we’re the same age, so let’s be friends and you can ask me anything,” and Jaemin takes it to heart, following Jeno around the hallways. Jeno teaches Jaemin the ropes, tells him where to go if he has a stomachache and how to get extra rice at lunch. Even after Jisung joins and flips their delicate balance of friendship on its head, even after Donghyuck gets closer to Jaemin instead of keeping him at arm’s length, Jaemin stays firmly attached to Jeno.

“Are you a parasite or something?” Donghyuck asks, incredulous, one day when they’re walking home after school. Jaemin’s pulled Jeno to him by the backpack straps, and he has a loose arm around Jeno’s shoulders as they walk back to the dorms in step.

“Yeah, I am, but only for Jeno. How’d you know, Donghyuckie?” Jaemin says, the corners of his lips curling upwards, and Donghyuck snorts.

“I can’t believe this. The _nerve_ ,” Donghyuck mutters under his breath before he turns to Mark with an unusual intensity burning in his eyes, and in that split second, Mark knows that Donghyuck wants him to tell Jaemin to just stop it already. “Mark-hyung!”

“Oh no, no no no,” Mark says quickly, putting his hands up and waving them around frantically. “I’m not getting involved. Nope.”

“Traitor,” Donghyuck sniffs before he starts to walk faster, putting enough distance between them that Mark has to jog to catch up to him. He doesn’t miss the way Jeno and Jaemin continue their conversation in low, hushed whispers the entire way back.

 

 

Debut can’t come quickly enough. Mark trains with Taeyong and Doyoung and Ten and Jaehyun for The Seventh Sense, and no matter what anyone else says, that feeling of standing on a stage knowing that he’s debuted can’t compare to anything he’s ever felt. He rides that high for days and weeks and months, for so long that he doesn’t even feel the exhaustion taking its toll through Firetruck.

It’s a month later, when he’s preparing for Chewing Gum promotions, when he starts to break.

He stumbles during a practice and he tries to catch himself before he falls, but it’s too late and he can feel himself hurtling towards the ground and he shuts his eyes, preparing for the impact, and then—

It never comes.

“Hyung.” Jaemin’s face swims into focus when Mark gingerly opens his eyes again. “Are you okay?”

Mark stares at Jaemin for a bit, stares until he can feel himself start to go cross-eyed, and that’s when he realizes that Jaemin’s arms are still the only things that are holding him up. He scrambles out of Jaemin’s hold as quickly as he can, but it’s too late. The music has stopped, the other members are all staring at him, and the staff members have all paused what they’re doing.

“I’m fine,” Mark says, and his words sound like a lie even as he speaks them.

“You should take the rest of the rest of the day off, hyung,” Jeno says, quiet. “It’s almost seven anyway, we’ll just run through the dance a few more times and we’ll go home with you.”

“I can’t. I really, really can’t. What about debut? I can’t just leave like this,” Mark protests, but he knows by the way the rest of the members look at him that they won’t let him practice any more tonight.

“God, you’re stubborn,” Donghyuck sighs. He takes one of Mark’s arms and loops it around a shoulder, and Jeno does the same. “We’re just gonna go home early tonight. Tell you what, we’ll order some food and play some games and watch some movies and you’ll sleep before the sun comes up today, yeah?”

“But debut—”

“Listen, it’s fine. Jisung is going to start doing the dance in his sleep if he keeps practicing it more than he already does, and I think that’s something no one wants to happen.”

Donghyuck steers Mark toward the exit, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jaemin wince as he bends down to grab his bag. Jeno is by Jaemin’s side in an instant, putting a hand on the small of Jaemin’s back and helping him straighten up, and there are alarm bells ringing in Mark’s head. He’ll talk to Jaemin about it later, but he can barely see straight right now, let alone have a proper conversation with other members about their health.

“Let’s go home!” Mark yells instead to where Chenle and Renjun are packing up to go, and Jisung bounds past him and flings the doors open.

“Last one home is cleaning the dishes!” Jisung hollers into the night air, and he sprints off into the distance.

 

 

When Jaemin leaves, Jeno takes it the worst, and no one is particularly surprised by this. Mark and Donghyuck don’t live in the dorms with the others, so everything that Mark knows has been texted to him by Jisung at three in the morning when everyone should be sleeping.

 _hyung please help he’s moping again_ , Jisung sends him one night. He’s even said please, which is mildly alarming. Jisung never says please.

 _what do you want me to do about it though?_ Mark replies, and Jisung sends him a sticker of a sad duck in response.

_idk talk to him?? fix it!!!_

Mark sighs. It’s always on him. The hyungs are watching a show in the living room, so he pads back into his room where Donghyuck is sprawled out on the bed, tapping away at his phone. “Hey.”

“Move,” he says, lightly pushing Donghyuck’s legs away and clearing enough space for himself to sit down. He pulls up Jeno’s number and calls him, and as he waits for Jeno to pick up, Donghyuck sits up and raises an eyebrow.

“What’s going on?” Donghyuck mouths, and Mark puts a finger to his lips. Jeno’s picked up.

“Hyung?” Jeno’s voice is tinny over the phone, but it still sounds hoarse, like he’s been crying.

“Hey, Jeno,” Mark says. “You holding up okay there?”

Jeno sniffles, and yeah, he’s definitely been crying. “Jisung ratted me out, didn’t he.”

“Um.”

“That’s okay. I know how annoying I’m probably being now.” Jeno sighs, and even over the phone, it’s a sound that tugs at Mark’s heartstrings. “Are you here trying to make me feel better?”

“Is it working?” Mark asks, and Donghyuck squints at him before lunging forward and grabbing the phone.

“Lee Jeno!” Donghyuck yells into the phone. “We’re all sad that Jaemin’s gone, but he’s going to kick your ass if he finds out you’ve been crying over him, which he is, because I’m going to tell him! You know he hates it when you get like this!”

Donghyuck pauses. Mark can faintly hear Jeno saying something in response, but he can’t make out the words.

“Okay, stop being so dramatic. I won’t actually tell him, because that’s kind of the last thing he needs right now, but— wait, shut up, I can’t hear you over the sound of how much of a _baby_ you’re being. I’ll give you back to Mark-hyung so he can tell you the nice things you want to hear.” Donghyuck passes the phone back to Mark, just as promised.

“Jeno?” Mark asks. There’s silence over the other line for a bit before Jeno speaks up.

“Yeah, hyung?”

“Don’t be too down. Jaemin’s going to be back as soon as he gets better, okay? We’re all thinking of him and wishing him a speedy recovery over here, but there’s not much else we can do. He’s doing his best to get better, so let’s just do what we can until we can come back as all seven of us again.”

“I know. It’s okay, I talk to Jaemin all the time anyway.”

“You talk to Jaemin all the time?” Mark repeats, and he stares, wide-eyed, at Donghyuck. “He doesn’t even reply in our Kakao chat!”

“Well, he says that sometimes Donghyuck can be too much. I mean, I just call him and we talk until we fall asleep,” Jeno says, his voice lighter than it was before. “I’m gonna call him now. I also have to lock Jisung in the bathroom for a few hours for snitching on me. Bye, hyung!”

“He’s going to lock Jisung in the bathroom,” Mark says to Donghyuck, more than a little dazed. “Shouldn’t we do something about that?”

“Forget that, hyung, who cares about what happens to Jisung,” Donghyuck says, huffing. “I can’t believe Jaemin talks to him and not us. What does Jeno have that we don’t?”

It’s not them. It’s not that Jaemin wants to talk to them less— it’s that Jaemin wants to talk to Jeno more, and Mark is pretty sure he knows why.

 

 

The best thing about Jaemin coming back is that Jaemin’s back. They can finally dance and sing and perform as seven again, and there’s an unspoken knowledge between all of them that what they need to do is to get Jaemin his first win. Mark hears from Jisung that with Jaemin there, the dorm is annoying and loud again, but there’s a fondness in his voice that tells Mark that Jisung doesn’t mind at all, not really.

The worst thing about Jaemin coming back is that Jaemin has practically disappeared. He’s not missing or anything, he’s just permanently attached to Jeno. Sometimes, when Mark comes over to visit them and to see what they’re up to after practice, Jeno opens the door, and Mark has to say, “hi Jeno, hi Jaemin,” because Jaemin is hanging off of Jeno’s arm.

Jeno gets an idea one night while they’re on the internet and reading comments on Youtube on the couch.

“Jaemin, I miss you so much. Tears. So many tears. That’s what someone wrote on a video compilation of you,” Jeno reads out loud, and Jaemin looks over. Jeno’s leaning against the arm of the couch, his legs across Jaemin’s lap, and Jaemin has a hand splayed out over Jeno’s thighs.

Donghyuck is sitting next to Mark on the ground, their backs against the couch, and he lets out a long, long exhale when Jaemin replies, “That’s what someone wrote? Isn’t that just what you said?”

“Oh my god, you two need to get a room! You have your own, don’t you, Jaemin?” Donghyuck leans over to slap at Jaemin’s calf, and Jaemin fakes a whine of pain.

“Excuse you, I’m injured. I have just recovered from a very big injury. Mark-hyung, Donghyuck is bullying me. Tell him not to be mean to me.”

“Guys, I told you once and I’m not telling you again, I’m not getting involved in any of this.” Mark wonders, idly, what his life would be like if he never had to mediate any petty arguments between Donghyuck and Jaemin again. It would be paradise, probably.

“What if we do a live?” Jeno asks suddenly and completely out of the blue. He stares at Jaemin, his words coming faster now that he has an idea in mind. “Like, me and Donghyuck and Mark-hyung, where we kind of spoil the fact that you’re back?”

Jaemin stares back at Jeno for a long time before he grins. “Can you guys do that? That’d be fun, right?”

“Let’s get our manager in on it too, I feel like he’d be down to help us. Oh, what if we list out everyone who’s doing the narration and keep adding on and on and keep hinting that there’s gonna be one more person?” Donghyuck is animated now, too— he’s always been eager to do things like this. “We can even have our manager ask where Jaemin is and stuff. That’ll totally get the fans going.”

Three pairs of eyes look towards Mark.

“I don’t have a choice, do I,” Mark says, and he gets three identical head shakes in response. “Let’s do it.”

The staff end up agreeing because they love spoilers just as much as the kids do, and when they head up to the studios to get the narrations done, Jaemin is the one to hold the camera as they do their live. Donghyuck is snickering to himself after the staff calls him aside, watching Jeno and Mark try to cover up their manager’s questions about where Jaemin is with more questions before giving up and ending the live.

It goes swimmingly, and Mark can’t wait to see what everyone’s reactions are like.

“You’re a pretty good actor, Jeno,” Jaemin says after they’ve shut the live down, and Donghyuck can’t contain his laughter anymore. It reverberates loud and open in the small studio, and it’s infectious.

“People are gonna be so happy that you’re back, Jaemin,” Jeno says, his eyes crinkling into half moons, and Mark looks away as Jaemin wraps his arms around Jeno’s waist, pressing himself closer.

“I’m happy I’m back, too.”

 

 

Mark is just trying to get a decent photo. This is all he wants to do, to get a half-decent picture of him and some of the Dreamies backstage before their Black on Black performance. He’s on the couch with Chenle and Jeno, and Jisung is hovering somewhere in the background.

“Kids,” Mark says, beckoning them over. “Picture.”

Jisung stays in the background, grinning over at them, and Chenle and Jeno squeeze closer to him, throwing up a thumbs up and a v sign, before Mark spies, out of the corner of his eye, Jaemin coming closer. He has a bag of dried mangoes in his hand, and Mark manages to snap a quick photo before Jaemin stops next to them.

“Mango?” Jaemin asks Jeno, and Jeno nods. His v sign is still held up in the middle of the picture, which for some reason Mark thinks is hilarious. “Okay.”

Jaemin takes out a slice of mango and presses it to Jeno’s lips, and Mark has an idea. It’ll be cute: him and Chenle and Jisung and Jaemin and Jeno with a slice of mango in his mouth. “Guys, let’s just take the picture like this!”

Mark holds the phone up again, and whatever happens next almost happens in slow motion. He sees Jaemin lean forward and press a hand to Jeno’s shoulder to stabilize himself, sees Jaemin take the other side of the mango slice into his mouth and bite down on it, and he snaps the picture.

Then Jaemin bites his end of the mango off, reaches up to take the remainder of the slice from Jeno’s mouth, and presses a quick kiss against Jeno’s lips.

“Na Jaemin, oh my god!” Mark shouts, resisting the urge to bash his head against the side of the wall because that would be so much easier on his stress levels than having to deal with Jaemin for an extended period of time. He’s forgotten, in just a year, just what Jaemin is capable of, and now he’s paying the price. “Why!”

Chenle is laughing and laughing and Jisung is staring at them, wide-eyed, and Jeno’s face is the same color as the lip tint the stylists had put on him earlier. Mark looks at him again. He might even be redder, actually. Jaemin shrugs, and Mark knows he’s not going to get a straight answer from him today, or tomorrow, or ever. He licks his lips before he looks over at Jeno, and a smile spreads across his face. “Sweet.”

Jeno drops his face into his hands as Chenle starts whooping, which promptly gets the attention of the other members, who start looking over to see what’s going on. Jaemin stands there, a smug grin on his face, and Mark stares at him.

“You’re the worst,” Mark accuses.

“I know,” Jaemin says, and he sits down on the edge of the couch and pulls Jeno closer to him. “I’d do it again, though.”

Jeno lets out a small, high sound, his face still covered by his hands, and Mark isn’t quite sure if it’s a plea for help or something else. Whatever it is, though, Jaemin peels one of Jeno’s hands from his face to plant a kiss on his cheek, and the smooching sound he makes is probably loud enough to be heard from their dorms.

That starts the entire thing all over again, and Chenle nearly drops to the floor with how hard he’s laughing. Mark sighs, long-suffering.

It’s been over five years. They’ve gotten new members and collectively grown over forty centimeters and finally debuted, but as far as Jeno and Jaemin are concerned, nothing’s changed at all.

He sees it in the way that Renjun confides in him that Jeno doesn’t even sleep in their room anymore, and Mark is about to ask Renjun where Jeno sleeps when he realizes the answer is obvious— Jaemin has his own room, after all, one that’s always warmer than normal and filled with the inviting scent of candles.

He sees it in the way that Jaemin’s eyes track the path that Jeno takes around the room, in the way that Jeno keeps a hand curled around Jaemin’s shoulders to play with the hair at the base of his neck when he thinks no one’s looking, in the way that sometimes, they’ll just sit together with their shoulders pressed against one another and talk about nothing and everything at the same time.

He sees it in the way they look at each other, like the rest of the world doesn’t exist at all when they’re together, and Mark knows.

Even though Jaemin’s grown more than Jeno has in the past year, even though Jeno’s voice has deepened lower than Jaemin’s has, even though the lines of their faces have sharpened and thinned with all of the pressure they’re putting on themselves, he knows.

He knows they’re still the same at heart, the same boys who walked home together after school, the same boys who toiled in the practice room for hours and hours, the same boys who spent their childhood training for a dream they’re now living.

“Mark-hyung!” Renjun’s voice jerks Mark out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“We’re heading out for pre-rec now. You okay?” Renjun’s eyes crease around the corners, and he reaches a careful hand out to feel Mark’s forehead.

“I’m good. Let’s go, kids.”

“Don’t call us kids,” Donghyuck mutters, but they gather around to leave together. “You’re barely a year older than us.”

“Oh, really? I thought you said the generational gap between us was too big?” Mark quirks an eyebrow upward, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Jaemin throwing an arm around Jeno’s shoulder, a pose that’s only made easier by the height Jaemin has on Jeno now. But it’s still so eerily reminiscent of five years ago— nothing really has changed. Just like in the beginning, they’re still stuck in each other’s orbits.

Mark gives the others quick grins before he leads them out of the waiting room and follows the older members onto the stage.

The world is waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u 4 reading ♡__♡
> 
> i also now have a [twt](http://twitter.com/gaImaegi) & [cc](http://curiouscat.me/jenuyu) so yea hmu..!!


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